Matrix of Kung Fu Movies and Filmmakers

[DrNgor]

We cinephiles like to make comparisons between films, and imagine how certain movies would've turned out under different directors. As an example of the former, we often refer to Bullet in the Head as John Woo's Deer Hunter. For the latter, some of us (like me) wonder what SPL 2: A Time for Consequences would've been like had Dion Lam been the action director as had been the original plan.

Yesterday, I was pondering the idea of "How would Heroes of the East have turned out if it had been directed by Chang Cheh? Or Sammo Hung? Or Yuen Woo-Ping?"

Well, most directors, action directors and actors in Hong Kong have a diverse enough filmography that there's at least one film that can help us imagine how a certain movie would've turned out in different hands. Let's take a look.

Below are some imagines from a spreadsheet I made where I listed a handful of important people in HK cinema, one of their masterpieces, and what the others did that were sort of similar. Please take a look, give me you constructive feedback, and make suggestions for the blank spaces, etc.

[Omni Dragon]

Bruce Lee's The 36th Chamber of Shaolin could be The Game of Death? Lee fighting up a tower with increasingly more difficult fighters is comparable to Liu going through increasingly more difficult chambers. Or maybe TGOD is Lee's Five Element Ninjas with the different elements comparable to the different floors of the tower.

Bruce Lee's Police Story maybe The Way of the Dragon? Not very similar but both are contemporary and have comedic moments.

Even though Bruce Lee didn't direct Fist of Fury perhaps it's his Ip Man both are set around the same era and both have signs of Japanese imperialism. Fist of Fury is also the only Bruce Lee movie I can think of that could be described as once upon a time in China, as in a story set in the past and in China...

Jackie Chan's Five Element Ninjas is possibly The Fearless Hyena.  Different elements comparable to the various fighters/challengers to the school Chan fights...maybe? 

Jackie Chan's Ip Man could be New Fist of Fury for the same reasons I mentioned about the original Fist of Fury...